REMEMBERING ’91 YEARS OF RESILIENCE AND SURVIVAL’
By Melody Hanatani/ Staff Writer
Woburn Advocate, MA
April 27 2006
It was a solemn day at the State House last Friday when local
officials and the Armenian community came together to commemorate
the 91st anniversary of the Armenian genocide.
Generations of Armenians filled the House of Representatives chamber
from top to bottom for the annual ceremony sponsored by the State
House Genocide Commemoration Committee.
Several candidates for the upcoming statewide election, including
gubernatorial hopeful Deval Patrick, were among those in attendance.
State Rep. Rachel Kaprielian of Watertown opened the event by calling
it a commemoration of “91 years of grief … 91 years of resilience
and survival.”
The Rev. Raphael Andonian of Belmont’s Holy Cross Armenian Catholic
Church gave the invocation and the Rev. Antranig Baljian of
St. Stephen’s Armenian Apostolic Church in Watertown gave a requiem
prayer.
Many speakers called for the Turkish and United States governments
to recognize the atrocities in order to begin healing and to prevent
future genocides.
U.S. Rep Edward Markey demanded that President George W. Bush go on
the record and recognize the killings as genocide.
Lt. Gov. Kerry Healey presented Governor’s Proclamations to four
survivors, three of whom attended the ceremony. The son of Areka
DerKazarian accepted the proclamation on behalf of his mother, who
was unable to attend.
“Our country is richer because of you,” Healey said to the survivors.
Healey was filling in for Gov. Mitt Romney, R-Belmont, who was in
Guantanamo Bay, Cuba on Friday.
This year’s ceremony honored Dr. Taner Akcam, a visiting professor
at the University of Minnesota, who was one of the first Turkish
scholars to recognize the genocide.
For speaking out, Akcam received a 10-year prison sentence in 1976. He
escaped after serving one year, and has lived in exile since then.
For the past 20 years, Akcam has worked on human rights issues, in
particular the Turkish government’s denial of the genocide. He said
truth and recognition would deter further human rights violations
and abuse.
He called for Turkey and Armenia to work together to deal with their
pasts as part of the democratization process.
Dr. Henry Theriault, the keynote speaker, said an apology alone could
simply be “empty rhetoric.”
Theriault, who is the coordinator for the Center for the Study of
Human Rights at Worcester State College, said recognition must come
in the form of land and reparations.
In his closing remarks, state Rep. Peter Koutoujian, D-Waltham, talked
about why the Armenian community continues to commemorate the genocide.
He said the commemoration is not about dwelling on the past, but
understanding that the genocide was the first of many that occurred
over the past 100 years.
“We know the events of the past are important today,” he said.
Clara Mandasian of Watertown has lived in Massachusetts for the past
seven years and has attended the commemoration every year. She’s been
to similar ceremonies around the United States.
For Mandasian, the commemoration is a way for her to honor the victims
of past genocides. Her grandmother survived the Armenian genocide.
“It’s very frustrating,” she said of the Turkish government’s denial
of the genocide. “It’s so painful to have a history, to know what
your family endured, and have the perpetrator deny it.”
It was a first-time ceremony for the younger generation of
Armenians. Araxie Poladian of Belmont brought her grandchildren for
the first time.
She hopes her grandchildren can keep the history alive.
“I hope people will tell other people that this shouldn’t happen to
anyone,” she said.